Tricky Twenty-Two

Theres a difference between having maturity and being mature. Im not ready to be mature. I dont want to see the AARP magazine stuffed in my mailbox. Joe Morelli (pg. 207)

Oh Joe honey, I hear ya. Its a sad day when the AARP magazine replaces Cosmo in your mailbox trust me, I know. But heres the thingyou and Stephanie have been going around in circles since 1994. Now I know that time moves at a different pace in the land of Plum, but even so you two havent made much progress since High School, and before you know it youll be staring at a 40 year old man in the mirror. Isnt it about time you grew up just the teeniest bit?

If youve been keeping up with the Plum series then Tricky Twenty-Two will feel eerily familiar. And thats because it just more of the same. Same cars getting annihilated, same break-up then make-up tango with Morelli, same platonic sleep-overs at Rangers place, same Lula scarfing down fried food. Theres absolutely nothing new here, even the big zit on Stephanies chin has made an encore appearance.

So why do I keep reading these books? Good question, and one I ask myself every single time I finish a Plum novel. I think its a combination of hope and nostalgia. Nostalgia for a series that I adored way back in the day and hope that Ill catch a glimpse of the magic that made the early books so special. Alas, my hopes were dashed with this one; no magic to speak of here, but it did bring back memories (mostly because the plot was recycled).

Im going for three stars with this one it was OK for what it is. Keep your expectations low and you wont be disappointed.

Sorry, this is where I have to step off. The issue with the series is that it takes a long-running comic strip approach to the characters, but what works for Garfield (who also hasn’t changed much in 40 years) can only make it so long in a novel format. (And honestly, even Arbuckle eventually got a girlfriend!)
It’s a little tricky, since the author doesn’t let the characters age, and uses a similar formula book after book plotwise, to provide any maturing of the character. There were already around 20 or so of these when I started reading, so I made it through the first fairly fast and while the formula was noticeable, I didn’t really pick up on the lack of character development until I had to wait for the next installments, and now I get what previous long-time fans have said about the character issues. I don’t really see a way to fix this, since it seems intrinsic to the book series, so I’m leaving while I still have fond memories of finding out what happened to the car this time…sorry Trenton

Stephanie Plum, the world’s worst bounty hunter, rides again. This times she goes back to college, to untangle a plot involving a misbehaving frat, an obsessed dean, and a crazy professor. Plus some of Trenton’s finest businessmen are getting whacked (so what else is new), Ranger is being his usual inaccessible self, and Joe Morelli, Stephanie’s cop boyfriend, has the runs so bad he decides it’s time for them to take a break.

I’ve been a huge–HUGE–fan of the Stephanie Plum novels for years, but as often happens with a long-running series, I have mixed feelings about the later books. “Tricky Twenty-Two” is still laugh-out-loud funny, with plenty of slapstick, mainly involving Stephanie and Lula’s failed attempts at apprehending FTAs, but Evanovich has been milking this series for 20 years now, and there’s only so many ways Stephanie can trip over garbage cans while trying to cuff a rapist. And while the final confrontation with the bad guy is reasonably exciting, we know that Ranger is going to find her just in the nick of time because it’s already happened 21 times before. And as an academic I have to say that her caricature of academia is…well, it’s not that far off, to be perfectly honest, but it’s still a caricature written from the outside.

On the other hand, like I said, there are still a number of scenes that made me laugh out loud, which is more than I can say for the vast majority of other books I’ve read recently, including the ones supposed to be funny. And while certain members of the ultra-PC crowd (a crowd I am nominally a part of, so don’t think I’m saying this to dump on them) may find the story about a cute working-class white girl, her loudmouthed black sidekick , and her macho male protectors to be a bit…what’s that word…oh yes, how could I forget, *problematic,* the fact is that Evanovich tackles issues of race, class, and sexual objectification and harassment in a straight-on yet entertaining way that more sensitive and “woke” authors can rarely manage.

If you’ve never read any of the Stephanie Plum books, I highly recommend starting with 1995’s “One For the Money,” which is a classic for a reason and combines Evanovich’s trademark slapstick with some genuinely edgy stuff. The later books have veered increasingly into slapstick territory and out of that edgy zone that truly good detective novels need to occupy (in my humble opinion), but they’re still more entertaining than 90% of what’s out there, so if you’re a Plum fan and you’re jonesing for a fix, this book will probably set you up for a little while.

Total rip off. It’s not the book, it’s a jerk writing a one page summary of each chapter and then selling it with the title, claiming it’s a novel and taking the cash. AVOID J MORGAN!

I think it is time to sign off with this author. No tension and not much action almost as if the author has gotten tired of the characters. Come on Janet, pick up the pace and add some action to the stories!

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